I've always been having game ideas, but they don't truly materialize. Now only if I had experience working in a game company, but my field of skill is focused on Java, and there just aren't as many big, sophisticated games out there written entirely in Java. Even if I can program and can draw at the same time, it takes more than just the intuition of being able to influence the point of your pen and able to construct working code to put together a game project that actually works, let aside attractive. Yet I haven't found a good book out there who can encompass all the fields that a true game designer need to excel in in order to become even just a passable one (which is more or less like a jack-of-all-trades for that sake). Therefore, my opinion tends to be that you can't even get your foot wet in that career unless you have had some real experience (somebody's getting ready to hoot here, probably), and not having prior wet-footing experience means you are automatically rejected to get in the career (an altogether-too-familiar scenario, somehow) field anyway, unless you have spent tens of thousands of dollars studying in institutions like DigiPen or something (which barely helps you to get a bit of dew on your toes). So, my biggest concern is that, however enthusiasm I may possess for that goal, I'm more or less faced with a deadlock here.

re: Points. I need a woman to score points? No wonder I dont have any points :-/

gallycat : One way you can get Java experience is to work on a volunteer project. The client programmer of Magicosm lives in the Boston area (I do too) and they have an open request for help in the Volunteer section of this forum. You need to spend at least 10 hours a week on it. Only ask if you are serious, they dont want to get people up to speed then have them wander away after 2 weeks.

Thanks, I'll give it look. It's a good thing that it's summer now and I don't have big jobs pending at the moment so I can probably devote some hours into it. But when September starts... well, I'll have to see. Thanks for the hint, however. Do they truly need Java developers? (Most games steer clear of that lang cuz of the poor performance)

The best way I found of learning how to program games was to just sit down with a good book explaining Java programming, work through web tutorials and just get on with some simple games and demos like space invaders in my spare time.

I'd done some scripting in lingo and knew some simple programming before starting Java - and in three months or so I'd made a scrolling space game demo with animated sprites and collision detection etc.

That demo, together with my previous experience, got me a job as a games developer for a year or so, working in Java, until the company went *pop* and then I went back to university (but that's another story.)

My advice to anyone interested is just to get on with it, post your stuff off to a company on CD, or put it up on a website (or even better, upload it to a distribution website for PDAs and MIDP phones and try and make some cash) and just enjoy doing it and be thankful you're not having to program J2EE apps.

Good idea with the download. But: how do you make money from it? Shareware? Don't think it'll work. My best bet would be a premium SMS as it is called here. But those SMS phone numbers are _really_ expensive, so you have to sell lots of copies before you make any money actually...

I signed up with Handango (I'm from the UK) and uploaded a game for people to buy for a few dollars for the Sharp Zaurus - it's not made loads of money (okay, I realise now that people don't want another version of space invaders) but it still sold. A bit.

You still have to agree to their Software Partner Agreement, which means you have to offer bug fixes and make sure the code doesn't contain easter eggs and suchlike. They take 25% commision for handling, hosting and payment processing, plus they take a wodge off in tax (and VAT, for some reason - perhaps I should be claiming that back) but they seem to do a fair amount of business.

I think Handango do MIDP games as well. There are probably other distributors on the net.

If I was doing it for a living, and I used Handango (and other distributors), games seem to sell better for Palm and Pocket PC - probably the wider market of users - so you have a choice of MIDP and SuperWaba for Palm - and I guess PersonalJava, or some other third-party Java spin-off for PocketPC. I'd go for SuperWaba.

At the end of the day, games are games are games. It's all about making a fun game, and like you mentioned, selling in volume. Tiny throw-away games in mass volume, just like a hamburger is throw-away food (but then again, it's the distributors, not the producers who make the most money in both cases it seems). Most of the time, the best selling games are just straight single-screen puzzlers (e.g. Bejewelled on Palm).

I've considered doing code-locked shareware - it gets your game downloaded - because it's free - and hopefully people get hooked. Plus people don't mind paying a bit of money for "shareware."

You could also argue that indie games have more personality in them - just look at Jeff Minter and Llamasoft. He did okay. I think in some respects, making software shareware, or some-other "try-before-you-buy"-ware can help. Although I might be wittering and disappearing up my own backside here.

Getting a game on a coverdisk of a magazine - or getting a review in a magazine - would be a good way of getting some free publicity for a game.

I would only consider doing premium SMS / reverse billing if I was a big company with enough cash, and I was sure I had a good recognisable "license" (blerrgh...*shivver*) or good game publicity.

The holy grail would be to cut out distributors and have m-commerce software embedded in games themselves. But that's probably another topic altogether.

Thanks for your very informative reply. Well , the whole point about the deal is the advertising, I guess. If you sign up with any distributor, the company should be able to finance some TV commercials, where customers are asked to send a premium SMS to 55555 and get the game immediatly. We are already discussing the idea of crippleware, but our current game has more or less 1 level (that you can play for a looong time), so it's kinda hard to sell additional levels. One option would be a time restriction. So you could only play for 3 minutes, before you are asked to send some money. You would get an ID then to unlock the game.Anyway...we'll find a way to sell our little game, I'm sure.To the Palm and Pocket PC's: I really don't think you can make any cash from them. I got me a used Palm from eBay on Saturday (my first PDA) and have already found tons of freeware games etc. Since I need the computer for downloads anyway, it's pretty obvious to download them immediatly, instead of buying them via SMS or so?

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